Apple: 40 billion unique app downloads, $7 billion paid to developers

20 billion iOS apps were downloaded in 2012 alone.

The mobile app world has come a long way since Steve Jobs extolled the virtues of Web apps in 2007. Apple announced early Monday that it had crossed the 40 billion mark for App Store downloads, with 20 billion of those downloads taking place in 2012 alone. In its announcement, Apple pointed out that the 40 billion number was derived from unique downloads that exclude re-downloads and updates—a common nit picked by critics.

Apple provided a number of other figures for context. The App Store now has more than 500 million active user accounts, and two billion app downloads took place during the month of December—undoubtedly after many new users unwrapped iPad minis and iPod touches. Apple says it has now paid out more than $7 billion to third-party developers for their apps, of which 775,000 are now available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in 155 countries.

The iOS App Store was first launched in early 2008, almost a year after the iPhone made its debut. It took a year for the App Store to push its first billion downloads, but it was only five months later when it crossed the two billion download mark in September 2009. The market has exploded since then for Apple and for competing platforms alike; earlier this month, Flurry analytics said there were 1.76 billion app downloads on iOS and Android during a single week in 2012, with an estimated 17.4 million devices being activated on Christmas Day. With numbers like that, it's no surprise that Apple's download numbers are multiplying—now if only app browsing and searching were even more intuitive (particularly when it comes to keywords), we could all download some more.

does "redownload" mean on the same device, or does it mean if the same app is installed on multiple devices registered to the same apple account? So if I download angry birds on my iPhone and iPad, is that counted as 1 or 2?

I wonder how many real apps there are in Google Play? With Apple and Microsoft filtering out pirated software, copyright violating software, software that encourages the breaking of contracts, and, at least for iOS, "apps" that do nothing but point to a web page, the numbers are less than they otherwise would be. In addition, the iOS numbers don't include apps that were abandoned, if it did, the number would be over a million.

So how are the apps in Google Play audited? Just the total number, no matter what they are?

It'd be nigh-impossible to accurately determine the total number of valid apps on google play. At any point in the number of apps removed is going to be lower than the number of apps that will be removed from the total number of current apps.

This assumes that the number of apps is constantly growing, and that the number (absolute, not relative) of invalid apps grows at a proportional rate.

Google had a Play Store sale last Spetember to celebrate 25bn downloads.

Seeing as 20 of the 40 billion iOS downloads were in the last year, it sounds like iOS users downloaded more apps last year than Android users... and if you factor in there being several times more Android users, it's an even larger gap in the per-user downloads (I'm assuming that the 25bn number is unique downloads as well... if not, it's an absurdly large gap).

Of course, that's still missing one very important bit of info: How much was paid to developers. It could be that, while far fewer Android apps were downloaded, they were, on average, much more expensive than iOS equivalents (or more in-app purchases/ad revenue). Without numbers/several reputable sources ("analysts" aren't reputable sources) saying this is indeed the case, I'd be very skeptical of any such claims.

This is pretty amazing stuff. Everything related to Apple draws a lot of emotion, but it needs to be pointed out how fantastic this is for both developers and users. And although it's success was somewhat accidental, Apple deserves a lot of credit for this.

A more interesting number would be how much of app-purchases (inclusive of in-app purchases) Apple has pocketed.

Apple takes a flat 30% of all purchases, so the math should be pretty easy. If developers got $7 billion, then Apple got $3 billion. Of course, that's a little misleading, because the credit card fees come out of Apple's portion. So Apple's $3 billion is really about $2.7 billion. (Others may not agree, but in my mind credit card fees are closer to a sales tax than an operating expense, so I tend to think of them as coming off the top line, rather than being subtracted in an expense line.)

EDIT: I am, of course, excluding the cases where Apple was the actual developer of the app. I assumed you were talking about "Apple as App Store operator", rather than "Apple as developer and distributor of its own apps".

Google had a Play Store sale last Spetember to celebrate 25bn downloads.

Seeing as 20 of the 40 billion iOS downloads were in the last year, it sounds like iOS users downloaded more apps last year than Android users... and if you factor in there being several times more Android users, it's an even larger gap in the per-user downloads (I'm assuming that the 25bn number is unique downloads as well... if not, it's an absurdly large gap).

Nyx how does that math work? You have Android taking ~6-7 months (Dec 11-June 12) to get 10 billion downloads, then ~3 months to get 5b more (so, same rate, 6 mo/10 billion, 3 mo/5 billion) and then you're assuming it jumps 15 billion in 3 months? Tripling its rate of downloads?

I mean not like this really matters but that's one heck of a jump. Holiday sales are big, but that big?

Also what I'd like to see is actual revenue from apps. Downloads don't really mean much without the context of who's making money and how much. I know how much some apps are making and I've talked to enough people to feel that's 'more or less' representative, but I'd like to know.

Nyx how does that math work? You have Android taking ~6-7 months (Dec 11-June 12) to get 10 billion downloads, then ~3 months to get 5b more (so, same rate, 6 mo/10 billion, 3 mo/5 billion) and then you're assuming it jumps 15 billion in 3 months? Tripling its rate of downloads?

I mean not like this really matters but that's one heck of a jump. Holiday sales are big, but that big?

Meh, transposed jun/sept (3am, sue me...) to get those numbers, sigh.Still, looks like 'droid is still increasing faster than 'i.

What exactly a download is supposed to be i have no idea.Also looks like the US figures are skewing numbers yet again.

now if only app browsing and searching were even more intuitive (particularly when it comes to keywords), we could all download some more

I definitely concur with this statement; finding good apps (or at least the app I want) among this large sea of apps is more difficult than it should be in the Apple App store. Although I have not browsed the Android store, my guess is that finding apps there should be much easer due to the awesome Google search algorithms.

Interesting stuff, but as others have said, I'd want to know the Android data - both volume and revenue. A lot of people have said that Android users don't pay for apps, so it'd be good to have data to either confirm or deny this theory. It's all too anecdotal at the moment.

Still, that's a hell of a lot of downloads and money to devs. That's a real success story.

now if only app browsing and searching were even more intuitive (particularly when it comes to keywords), we could all download some more

I definitely concur with this statement; finding good apps (or at least the app I want) among this large sea of apps is more difficult than it should be in the Apple App store. Although I have not browsed the Android store, my guess is that finding apps there should be much easer due to the awesome Google search algorithms.

Dream.on. Google Play is the same cluster as the iphone appstore.

Apps, if the don't use sensors, should be websites. But the idea is if it is not an app, it is soon forgotten. That is why so many apps are barely more than links to websites.

A more interesting number would be how much of app-purchases (inclusive of in-app purchases) Apple has pocketed.

Apple takes a flat 30% of all purchases, so the math should be pretty easy. If developers got $7 billion, then Apple got $3 billion. Of course, that's a little misleading, because the credit card fees come out of Apple's portion. So Apple's $3 billion is really about $2.7 billion. (Others may not agree, but in my mind credit card fees are closer to a sales tax than an operating expense, so I tend to think of them as coming off the top line, rather than being subtracted in an expense line.)

EDIT: I am, of course, excluding the cases where Apple was the actual developer of the app. I assumed you were talking about "Apple as App Store operator", rather than "Apple as developer and distributor of its own apps".

Generally credit card processing is 25c + % of value. I'm sure Apple negotiated a discount, but if it was even half that.... As the average price is 99c, apple gets 29c, most of which is taken by the credit card company.So it's likely closer to 1.5b.

Generally credit card processing is 25c + % of value. I'm sure Apple negotiated a discount, but if it was even half that.... As the average price is 99c, apple gets 29c, most of which is taken by the credit card company.So it's likely closer to 1.5b.

I guarantee that Apple is not paying $0.25 per transaction on credit card processing. They probably pay pretty close to what the credit card company charges. The company I work for is a much smaller online retailer than Apple and even we don't pay $0.25 per transaction.

I wouldn't be surprised if they interact directly with the credit card company and don't use a processor at all.

As an android user I'm not currently contributing to the # of Google Play apps downloaded, but i have a crazy-ton of apps -- blame Amazon. I was snagging their free-app-of-the-day from the beginning, so now I have more "paid" apps than I know what to do with and have only once gone to google play to find something (notification toggle, handy app).

So If there are a lot of users leeching off amazon's generosity then there are still developers getting some unknown amount of money, but not counted in the google play stats.

Because I'm assuming some number of Apple fanboys are voting down anything they consider to be less than full-throated support? I get that most people seem to use the voting as a way to indicate like and dislike, rather then trolling or content, but in the cases when people are posting links to data it is indeed pretty bizarre.

Err, your link says absolutely nothing about whether developing for Android is more or less profitable than developing for iOS.

Edit: And Asten is likely getting down-voted for claiming that "iOS development is much more profitable" is no longer the case without providing any evidence to support said claim. Well, that's why I voted them down, at least.

As an android user I'm not currently contributing to the # of Google Play apps downloaded, but i have a crazy-ton of apps -- blame Amazon. I was snagging their free-app-of-the-day from the beginning, so now I have more "paid" apps than I know what to do with and have only once gone to google play to find something (notification toggle, handy app).

So If there are a lot of users leeching off amazon's generosity then there are still developers getting some unknown amount of money, but not counted in the google play stats.

Nice theory, but Amazon usually only gives the FAOTD spot to developers agreeing to be paid 0%.

Both sets of numbers show linear growth. If we simply extrapolate that then Google Play will hit 40bn some time in May. But we don't have any figures for how well it did over the holidays, so it might come a bit sooner.

Since you seemed to not get what I was saying, let me reiterate: Based on what several developers that create apps for both iOS and Android have said, iOS tends to be the more profitable platform of the two despite Android's larger user base.

What I want to know is if that has continued to be the case (admittedly, that might not have been the case before, but they're the best sources I've seen). Android's continued growth doesn't really mean anything without app revenue numbers. From the download numbers, it would appear the average Android user downloads less than the average iOS user. I'd bet that the average Android user is also much less willing to pay than the average iOS user, but, I'd prefer to see real numbers than just my (personal) gut instinct.

I'd be interested to see an analysis of voting patterns in this comment thread. Votes are all over the place, and seem largely illogical.

You've got layers of voters in threads like this:- Apple fans- Android fans- People who need links to back up statements- People who don't like the links provided to back up statements- People who don't like the poster's toneand so on.

Even then, some people dip in and out, impacting a few comments but skipping others they might normally vote on.

No analysis is worthwhile without seeing who voted for what, and getting them to tell you why. It's just too complex, even in this short thread. It may not be so illogical when you have all the data.

Because I'm assuming some number of Apple fanboys are voting down anything they consider to be less than full-throated support? I get that most people seem to use the voting as a way to indicate like and dislike, rather then trolling or content, but in the cases when people are posting links to data it is indeed pretty bizarre.

Or in the case of the post above, one stumble into the TechCrunch comments section is worth 10 down votes. Just a bunch of fanboys with the collective IQ of a ham sandwich.

Apple takes a flat 30% of all purchases, so the math should be pretty easy. If developers got $7 billion, then Apple got $3 billion. Of course, that's a little misleading, because the credit card fees come out of Apple's portion. So Apple's $3 billion is really about $2.7 billion. (Others may not agree, but in my mind credit card fees are closer to a sales tax than an operating expense, so I tend to think of them as coming off the top line, rather than being subtracted in an expense line.)

EDIT: I am, of course, excluding the cases where Apple was the actual developer of the app. I assumed you were talking about "Apple as App Store operator", rather than "Apple as developer and distributor of its own apps".

What prompted the question in the first place was me thinking that the pricing model / percentage changed depending on the price of the app. After a bit more time (and Googling), it doesn't appear to be the case.

Device market share has little to no bearing on actually app market size. I'm an app developer and spent a bit of time researching both platforms before i picked one to develop on.

Android seems to be winning the device market share battle because of a large volume of low end Android phones that are really "feature phones" instead of smartphones, i.e. that aren't being used for apps or web browsing, Android seems to be selling a ton of pay as you go phones. Look up actually web use surveys and Android comes out far weaker vs.iOS than device market share would have you believe.

And downloads and App store counts are meaningless, revenues is what matters. Apple had a head start in loading their store with apps, but it's approval process is also far more rigorous, my last app was in review for almost a month before it was rejected, and it took another week before i could get it approved. My dog could have an app on the Play store in a couple days.

It's revenues that drive app development and when I did my research a year ago, typical industry estimates were that at least 3x more is being spent on iOS apps than on Android apps, and I haven't seen any recent data that changes that since (and I constantly monitor for app market share figures).

Apple details how much they pay app developers publcly. Last I looked it was trending towards $900M per quarter.

Edit: Hmm, turns out they only release this intermittently, the previous release I found was July 2011, saying "more than $2.5B".

The current release says "more than $7B", so $4.5B in about 6 quarters, or it's averaged paying app developers $750M per quarter the last 6 quarters. Obviously the amount grows quarterly, so my $900M estimate for last quarter is probably accurate.

Google does not disclose how much Google Play pays developers and that tells you all you need to know about the relative sales rates. What platforms disclose tells you what's favorable to them, and what they don't tells you what is unfavorable to them.

As an android user I'm not currently contributing to the # of Google Play apps downloaded, but i have a crazy-ton of apps -- blame Amazon. I was snagging their free-app-of-the-day from the beginning, so now I have more "paid" apps than I know what to do with and have only once gone to google play to find something (notification toggle, handy app).

So If there are a lot of users leeching off amazon's generosity then there are still developers getting some unknown amount of money, but not counted in the google play stats.

Nice theory, but Amazon usually only gives the FAOTD spot to developers agreeing to be paid 0%.

True, I was not aware of that. Initial point still holds that I have a lot of apps that aren't counted as downloads for the play store. So now the question is how many more app purchases would there be in both amazon's market and the play store if it weren't for the FAOTD.